By 1989, a dozen major issues existed that led President Gorbachev to introduce the reforms of perestroika and glasnost. These reforms failed, and within a few years, the entire Soviet Union broke apart into various nations across Eurasia. In some circles, the Soviet collapse was blamed on Gorbachev’s poor and hesitant leadership. Despite Gorbachev’s leadership being a contributing factor, several other significant issues remained. To supplement the readings, we played a political game to discuss the complexities of this topic. Our political game was based on how these issues could be solved to prevent the Soviet Union’s collapse. This was an extremely difficult task to solve, because there are a variety of solutions that could be employed.
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The Soviet economy suffered from a reduction of annual growth, lower production numbers, international trade, and absenteeism at Soviet businesses. Annual growth in the Soviet Union was 3% in 1970, but by 1985, the annual growth dropped to an abysmal 1.6%. Since factories were demanded to keep certain production numbers, they usually falsified them in hopes to satisfy the Communist party. This was a dangerous process as production only reached between 50 to 85% in factories. With reduced production, people are more likely to wait in long breads lines and struggle to get needed food from supermarkets. In its place, a black market formed that further reduced the availability of certain products. As a result of poor production, absenteeism and alcoholism rose in the nation. In order to stop the alcoholism problem, the Kremlin decided to institute a prohibition. Not surprisingly, the prohibition was a major failure as the economy suffered from reduced alcohol production. In addition, the alcohol prohibition increased distrust in Soviet government and led to people drinking privately. The demographic issues included a reduction in population growth, a lowered life …show more content…
Their goals were to develop a more market-based economy and encourage more openness of discussion. Perestroika was the main economic reform package, which included state ownership, co-operative ownership, and private ownership. In terms of economic freedom, the program established the sentiment that whatever was not forbidden was permitted in the economy. In addition to economic goals, perestroika also included policies of increasing freedom of speech and social groups. Glasnost was the main political reform package, which focused on forming a larger and more powerful civil society. Glasnost led to pluralism of ideas and more independent social activity, but the program specifically did not allow for political pluralism. Another major result of glasnost was an increased role of television, which caused young people to receive more of a voice and caused the uncovering of corruption. Through campaigning journalism and broadcasting hours of parliament, it revealed that the Soviet politicians were more interested in procedural practices instead of debating important
The Soviet economy suffered from a reduction of annual growth, lower production numbers, international trade, and absenteeism at Soviet businesses. Annual growth in the Soviet Union was 3% in 1970, but by 1985, the annual growth dropped to an abysmal 1.6%. Since factories were demanded to keep certain production numbers, they usually falsified them in hopes to satisfy the Communist party. This was a dangerous process as production only reached between 50 to 85% in factories. With reduced production, people are more likely to wait in long breads lines and struggle to get needed food from supermarkets. In its place, a black market formed that further reduced the availability of certain products. As a result of poor production, absenteeism and alcoholism rose in the nation. In order to stop the alcoholism problem, the Kremlin decided to institute a prohibition. Not surprisingly, the prohibition was a major failure as the economy suffered from reduced alcohol production. In addition, the alcohol prohibition increased distrust in Soviet government and led to people drinking privately. The demographic issues included a reduction in population growth, a lowered life …show more content…
Their goals were to develop a more market-based economy and encourage more openness of discussion. Perestroika was the main economic reform package, which included state ownership, co-operative ownership, and private ownership. In terms of economic freedom, the program established the sentiment that whatever was not forbidden was permitted in the economy. In addition to economic goals, perestroika also included policies of increasing freedom of speech and social groups. Glasnost was the main political reform package, which focused on forming a larger and more powerful civil society. Glasnost led to pluralism of ideas and more independent social activity, but the program specifically did not allow for political pluralism. Another major result of glasnost was an increased role of television, which caused young people to receive more of a voice and caused the uncovering of corruption. Through campaigning journalism and broadcasting hours of parliament, it revealed that the Soviet politicians were more interested in procedural practices instead of debating important